Goalkickers: Fevola 4, Waite, Whitnall, Camporeale, Davies, French, Harford, Johnson, Koutoufides, Scotland, Stevens 1

Umpires: Meredith, Wenn, Jeffery

Reports: Nil

Injuries: Nil

Game Review

Fresh from a 62 point humiliation at the hands of the Eagles at Subiaco the week before, the Blues fronted up to a Melbourne team which had itself suffered two losses in a row to drop out of the top 4. Despite this, the Demons were still favoured to take the points away from the Blues this day.

The first quarter started with a quick goal to Melbourne's Jeff White. Scott Camporeale would respond within minutes for Carlton, but the Blues' only other goal came after a Barnaby French mark in the goalsquare. Meanwhile, the Demons peppered the goals, scoring 3.7 for the term - captain David Neitz providing 3 of the behinds opposed to Luke Livingston. He would be kept goalless all day.

The second quarter began slowly, but the Blues found a little extra to score 3 goals in quick time - two to Brendan Fevola and one to Anthony Koutoufides. Nick Stevens and Brett Johnson provided the other goals in this quarter - Stevens' goal was a gem. Squeezed up on the boundary line on the wrong side for a right footer, he split the middle.

A 12 point lead at half-time was being chased down by Melbourne, and when Colin Sylvia goaled, the margin was a mere 5 points. Then the Blues flicked the switch to 'rampant'. Fevola would kick two more goals, Jarrad Waite would provide some marvellous pieces of athleticism, and Justin Davies kicked a ripper. Gathering the ball outside 50 in a contest with Nathan Brown, he ran in, handballed away from himself so as to avoid a tackle, regathered and slotted a beauty. Then Heath Scotland kicked a superb right foot snap, which just curled through, much to the delight of the noisy home crowd, to give the Blues a 32 point lead at the last change.

The final quarter was quiet by comparison - two goals apiece would see the Blues run out 31 point winners.

This game would mark the impressive debut of recently promoted rookie Andrew Carrazzo, who kept the dangerous Aaron Davey goalless and to 6 possessions whilst picking up 18 himself. Stevens ran rings around the Demon midfielders all day, picking up 35 touches.

Team

Milestones

Debut: Andrew Carrazzo

Brownlow Votes

3: David Teague (CARL)
2: Anthony Koutoufides (CARL)
1: Nick Stevens (CARL)

Best & Fairest Votes

Nick Stevens (45), Anthony Koutoufides (40), Scott Camporeale, Bret Thornton (37), Andrew Carrazzo (33), David Teague (28), Justin Davies, Luke Livingston, Digby Morrell (25), Jordan Bannister (22), Brendan Fevola, Matthew Lappin (21), Cory McGrath (18), Barnaby French (10), Adam Bentick (5)